Twitter is some kind of wonderful - it
surprises me a little every day.
Maybe not through Twitter, more than a few have likely experienced some form of Social Media Wow! (Sort of like ShamWow
but a lot less water-friendly.) Good or bad. Be it in the form of a heavy sigh
- like when that random person finds you on Facebook and you realize it isn’t a
stranger but that kid from back in high school who had the locker next to yours
and would listen in on your conversations with friends between classes but
would always avoid eye contact, (go figure they now want to see where you live,
look at your pictures and watch for your status updates to feel a part of your
life without actually being in it…at least beyond the quick click of the +Add
as a Friend button.)
Or
something more along the lines of, ‘is this really happening!?’ - being when a colleague of mine lost his mobile on the train only to find it online...via the girl who found it at the stop after his and thought to find him on Facebook to return it.
David Prager
has a story about it today too. He woke up yesterday morning and absolutely felt the
power his @ identity had, like never before. Earlier this week, the Revision3 co-founder and Diggnation contributor was working
into the early hours of the morning when he was interrupted by a homeless man
entering his San Francisco apartment. @dlprager’s
reaction? - Tweet about it. Line by line, he shared the thoroughly odd
encounter with his thousands of Twitter followers. Some of those still
awake expressed confusion and concern about David using Twitter instead of
contacting the police – he responded not by calling for help but instead, by turning
on his Webcam to live-stream the action.
Some argue
that his encounter was just a viral stunt to plug
Diggnation’s Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose (Digg founder)’s appearance
on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that next day. Either way – millions
are now talking
about it - who before today, probably didn’t know David Prager, or much about
Revision3, not to mention @jimmyfallon’s
nerdy, beer-spilling sit down with Albrecht and Rose.
A
legitimate #hobobreakin or
not, it’s a prime example of the digital media phenomenon, and the way it’s
redefining the flow of information: 1) the lifecycle of ‘news’ is dramatically
shorter - from introduction, to buzz,
to saturation and quickly, exhaustion; and 2) the reach is exponentially
broader and deeper in the spread of any message, from simple and insignificant
to actionable and meaningful.
So we see that while uncomfortable and awkward, not all break-ins are
necessarily bad – sometimes a person just needs a toilet and a bed. (Although
David is likely the only person who’d condone not calling the cops regardless.)
Or perhaps we see a lesson in viral marketing – dos and don’ts and maybe how far
is too far?
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